The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan – Philipp Sendker

Go to any bookstore today. Then, go to the fiction section. Pick up a few random books from different rows. Read their summary. The similarities between them will surprise you. That is the state of fiction and literature today. There seem to be only a few themes that the new age fiction authors seem to center their respective works around. The prominent of them are love, romance, basics of philosophy, heartbreak. Some other peripherals include mystery, thriller, sci-fi and so on. However, every now and then a breather arrives that makes you feel that it is still possible to find a few hidden gems amongst the mines-upo-mines of books available today.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker is one such gem.

There are a lot of avenues from which one can begin praising any book. Let us begin with the most obvious one: language. The language used by the author is so easy to read and understand that it makes going through the book a walk in the park. That makes it a good read for people across ages. The choice of words by the author give this work a global reach. The flow of the story is such that at no point does the reader feel disconnected with the imagery being presented. The novel achieves the distinction of being a page-turner as well as one of those books that you can read at your own pace, keeping it down at times while you absorb the story and the message it conveys.

The story is a simple one. It revolves around a daughter in search of her father. Through stories, she gets to know who her father was in his early years. Reluctant at first, she slowly begins to learn of the man who raised her. As she begins to understand more about him and related it with her past, she realizes that there was more to him, more to life than what is seen by the eyes. There is also a twist in the end that ends up typing a major part of the story together. Concepts of unconditional love, duty, responsibility, longing and eternity are interwoven throughout the story. This is another reason why people across age groups and reading preferences will be able to connect and relate to it.

The reader is transported through the world depicted by the author. Every road, every tree, every residence is easy to visualize. As the narration moves from one segment to another, it is easy to understand the extensive study undertaken to paint the details, especially since some of the scenarios are set in a different era altogether. That itself indicates the efforts and ingenuity of the author as he presents different times with utmost ease.

Readers shouldn’t be surprised about the philosophical undertones of the book. It is not only a novel, it is also a treatise on human relationships, the complications of the human mind and on the finer divide between real and surreal. Partial teachings from the greats and the great works – Buddha, The Bhagwat Gita etc. – are beautifully imbibed in this work. As the pages are flipped, it is evident that the writer holds deep spiritual beliefs that seem to have guided him. The story is sprinkled with elements of philosophy presented in an easy to read manner. Instead of feeling like a sermon, they feel more like the footnotes (a.k.a the moral of the story at the end of each chapter of kids’ books).

The characters are deftly written. However, they do not add to the baggage to the narration that characters in a lot of works usually do. Since the story runs across different points in time the narration also shifts accordingly. The first person narrations are slightly better than the third person ones. Still, both are able to achieve their purposes. Amongst the characters, there is a daughter looking for a father. There is a stranger who narrates the story of the father. The character of the father himself is portrayed as an enigma whose life becomes clearer as the story progresses. There is a love interest. There are characters resembling family members. There is a teacher whose presence makes the reader realize about the undertones of knowledge and philosophy present throughout the book. Finally, there are some more supporting characters who contribute in their own special way. So refined is the presence of all of them that quite early in the novel one can figure out that every single one of them is there to serve a particular purpose and lasts till that purpose is served, not more, not less. Perhaps this was intentionally done in order be in line with the overall philosophical tone of the book, reminding the reader that we all are here to serve a particular purpose and once that is over, so does our part in life’s story.

A personal note of gratitude to the people who introduced me to this book by handing me over a copy of it. Had it not been for them, I wouldn’t have discovered this fantastic piece of art. I had not known of Mr. Jan – Philipp Sendker before reading this book. Once I was done, I felt the need to know more about him. The information available on the internet is very limited. However, I could make out that there is more to his writing than what he had depicted in this work. I intend to get my hands on more of his work in the coming days.

Overall, this work should be recommended to people across different reading preference. There is a bit in it for a lot of them. Readers would be happy to know of a world and are sure to view their intricate relationships in a new light after reading this book.